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This summer, my cooking and eating have been all about simplicity. I spent the month of July living in a hotel room on a busy rotation, but had the benefit of having an amazing farmers’ market take place outside the hotel doors every Saturday morning. I took full advantage of the summer’s bounty and the 2×3 square feet of counter space I had to make vibrant salads filled with fresh corn, tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers. It never ceases to amaze me how little effort is required to enjoy such delicious food when it’s at its season’s peak.

Even though I’m back to the comforts of my kitchen, the warm weather and abundant produce are making me crave nothing more than fresh fruits and vegetables (and the more-than-occasional ice cream sundae). I’ve made many variations on this salad throughout the summer, but here’s the most recent iteration, which featured fresh corn, juicy tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, and creamy avocado. I love an herby punch and put generous handfuls of dill, mint, and basil in the salad, crumbled in tangy feta, and dressed it all with a combo of lemon, olive oil, and honey mustard. It lasts in the fridge for about 3-4 days, and while great on its own, was also delicious combined with cooked lentils or canned beans, pairs beautifully with salmon, and makes a great portable lunch stuffed into a pita pocket with hummus and greens.

Here’s to the summer (and to more frequent postings—I promise!)

Summer Simplicity Salad

3 ears of corn, husks removed, kernels cut off

5-6 roma tomatoes, chopped

1 medium English cucumber, diced

1 large avocado, diced

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup basil, chopped

1/2 cup dill, chopped

1/2 cup mint, chopped

Dressing:

2 lemons, juiced

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp honey mustard

salt and pepper

Combine all of the salad ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together dressing ingredients until well combined. Pour over vegetable/herb mix and toss evenly to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

I was never a ketchup kid. Nope, for little me, it was all about the honey mustard. It was the tried and true companion to my childhood favorites: Chili’s Chicken Crispers, Hungry Bear subs (shout out to my Kendall peeps!), and my mom’s chef’s salads. Creamy, tangy, and sweet, honey mustard is hard not to love. But much as I love it, I’ve also come to realize that it isn’t the healthiest of condiments, often mayo-based and with a hefty load of sugar. Sorry kid-self, but your quasi-adult self was in need of a more nutritious, but just as delicious, honey mustard remix.

Enter my doctored up and future-doctor-approved version, which uses the almighty power of Greek yogurt to impart all the creaminess and tanginess that makes honey mustard so delectable, with a fraction of the fat and calories, and a whopping serving of protein to boot. This would be great as a dip for veggies or baked fries, as a salad dressing, atop grilled chicken or seafood, or heck, just right off the spoon! Last week, I incorporated it into a filling lunch salad featuring kale, roasted sweet potatoes, pistachios, and avocados (recipe below). I hope you find lots of ways to dip into this delicious dressing!

Honey Mustard Dressing

1 cup Greek yogurt

2 tbsp mustard (dijon or coarse grain)

1 tbsp honey

1 lemon, juiced

2 tsp orange or apricot marmalade (optional, but might add an extra tsp of honey if you leave it out)

Mix all ingredients together. Use as desired.

Honey Mustard Kale and Sweet Potato Salad

2 medium sweet potatoes, diced

1 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 bunch kale, washed, stemmed, and leaves torn into bite size pieces

1 large or 2 small carrots, peeled into ribbons

1 medium seedless cucumber

¼ cup pistachios

Honey Mustard Dressing (recipe above)

2 avocados, diced

Preheat oven to 450. Toss diced sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Arrange in single layer on a baking sheet and roast for 30-35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and slightly golden in some spots.

Wash kale, remove stems, and tear leaves into bite sized pieces. Place them into a large bowl. When sweet potatoes are done, pour the hot potatoes over the kale and toss so that the leaves wilt a bit. Add carrots cucumber, pistachios, and honey mustard dressing and toss until well combined. If serving immediately, toss in diced avocado. If planning to store, add diced avocado fresh to each portion.

I’m coming off the heels of a delicious week-long break. Our school kindly gave us nine days of freedom between rotations to relax and recharge. For me, that meant a trip home to Miami to celebrate the birthdays of my incredible grandmothers, followed by a couple of days enjoying my dad’s company in Chicago. Although the Miami sun was reluctant to peek from the clouds, I still managed to tan away a bit of my pasty complexion. More importantly, I got to spend a ton of quality time with my entire family and indulge in way too much good food.

Last Sunday, we celebrated my Grandma Rita’s 80th birthday at an extravagant brunch buffet. I felt like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory as I pranced about the stations of food, doling crab legs and fancy cheeses onto my plate, and ogling over every dainty petit four that graced the dessert room (yes, room!). Let’s just say this was a special occasion for a very special lady, and I was lucky to partake in such an indulgent event! One of the highlights of the buffet for me was something that was tucked away in a little bowl behind the more showstopping rows of sushi. It was a cold soba noodle salad, full of soft chunks of tofu, studded with dried cranberries, and tossed in a light vinegary dressing. I was won over by the interplay of sweet and tangy, and loved how light and fresh the flavors were. I snapped a photo and made a mental note to recreate this as soon as I came back to Chicago.

Serendipitously, my dad and I dined at a great Korean restaurant last night where the portion sizes were gargantuan. Among the many containers of leftovers I got to take back to my apartment was a brimming quart of cold spicy soba noodles. Although delicious in their own right, I couldn’t help but see the makings of my longed-for brunch buffet soba salad in them. So today, I did some doctoring of a different kind, and gave these soba noodles new life with the addition of thinly sliced cabbage and cucumbers, delicate carrot ribbons, tofu, cranberries, cashews, and a generous dousing of rice vinegar. Infused with the memories of my grandma’s special celebration and my dad’s visit to Chicago, these noodles will be my little reminder of the wonderful vacation had with my family as I take on my next rotation.

Soba Noodle Salad

2 cups soba noodles, cooked and chilled

1/2 head Napa cabbage, sliced in thin ribbons

1 English cucumber, sliced in thin quarters

1 large carrots, cut into long ribbons (use a vegetable peeler)

2/3 block of extra firm tofu, drained and cut into small cubes

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup roasted cashews, chopped

1/3 cup rice vinegar

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tbsp sriracha or other hot sauce*

Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl. Add more vinegar/sugar/hot sauce to your liking. Enjoy!

*Note: There was a bit of spicy sauce already on the noodles I used from the restaurant, so you may want to add more or less hot sauce depending on your taste!

In just a few short weeks of third year, a whole lot of medical jargon has been added to my repertoire. One of my favorite phrases to date is “golden weekend.” Definition: getting both Saturday and Sunday off. As med students, we’re generally guaranteed one weekend day free, but every now and then, we’re gifted a precious two full days of leisure.

This weekend was a golden one for me, and I lived it out to its fullest, catching up with friends, taking walks in the surprisingly cool weather, and of course, cooking, eating, and enjoying great food.

The farmers market was once again teeming with the sweet stone fruits of summer. I had to use every bit of restraint and a self-imposed $10 limit to not buy every last cherry and berry and on display. After great internal debate and a healthy amount of sampling, I came away with a carton of tender and succulent apricots, delicate, fragrant, and at their peak of ripeness. I hesitated to adulterate these precious orange gems in any way other than eating them solo. But after I had done that with a couple immediately upon arriving home, a salad sprung to mind that I was confident would showcase their natural beauty and flavor.

Juicy slices of apricot were combined with spicy arugula, tangy goat cheese, rich pistachios, and sweet fennel and tossed in a simple balsamic vinaigrette. Perhaps it was that I was enjoying it smack dab in the middle of a golden weekend, or that it was made with fancier ingredients that I don’t buy on a regular basis, or that it was enjoyed alongside two of Kate’s specialties, bruschetta and baba ganoush, but there was something about eating this salad that was utterly luxurious and special.

By the next time I’m free to make it back to the market, apricots may have fallen out of season, and the prospects of recreating this very salad may be slim. However, if there’s something I’ve realized so far during third year, it’s not to lament limited free time, but rather to savor these precious spent moments spent enjoying friends, food, and the city around us.

Apricot & Arugula Salad

Serves 2 salad-loving folk, and 4 normal people

3-4 apricots, sliced

3-4 large handfuls of arugula

1 bulb fennel, sliced very thinly (best if you can use a mandoline)

2 oz goat cheese, crumbled

2 tbsp pistachios

Balsamic Vinaigrette:

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp dijon mustard

3 tbsp olive oil

crack of black pepper

pinch of salt

Assemble salad ingredients in a large bowl. Use a fork or whisk to stir all the dressing ingredients vigorously until well combined. Toss salad in dressing just before serving. Enjoy!

Well, hello! It’s been a while since sugar cured has gotten some attention. Much as we aspired to maintain weekly posts during boards time, studying got the best of me in the last two weeks. But I’m happy to report that the gnarliness has come to an end and the blogging has resumed! In fond memory of the past six weeks, I’d like to share one of the best lunches I had during that time.

Since I was studying at home, I had the luxury of preparing a fresh lunch every day. I welcomed that midday break as a time to shut off my left brain and ignite my right brain with culinary creativity. The concoctions were usually simple, but they recharged me both physically and mentally for the afternoon ahead.

One of my favorite lunches was this avocado egg salad. In lieu of mayo, I mashed an avocado with lemon juice, salt, pepper. I added some sprigs of dill and a handful of torn spinach to the mix and then broke in medium-boiled eggs that were still a bit drippy in the center. Piled atop lightly toasted rye bread and adorned with ruby red tomato slices from my parents’ garden, this healthy and satisfying salad provided just the right nourishment that my mind and body needed. I hope this recipe provides you with the same.

It’s good to be back!

Avocado Egg Salad

Serves 2

2 eggs

1 hass avocado

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper

a few sprigs chopped fresh dill (optional)

1 handful fresh spinach, torn into small pieces

Place eggs in a small pot and fill pot with water until the eggs are barely covered. Place over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cook for 7-8 minutes, depending on how soft/hard you like your yolk.

While eggs are cooking, mash avocado in a bowl with lemon juice, spinach, dill, and salt and pepper to taste. Once eggs are done, rinse them under cold water, peel them and add them to the avocado mixture. Mash until combined. Serve atop toasted bread with tomatoes or toppings of your choosing.

In the realm of baking, 350 is a comfortable number. It’s the tried and true temp for producing moist quickbreads, gooey brownies, and tender cookies. As a kid, I was schooled in the world of baking long before I ventured into the arena of savory cooking, and for most of my childhood, I thought that temperatures above the 300s were reserved for the oven cleaning mode or some horribly hazardous activities.
I distinctly remember the first time I cooked something at 400 degrees. I was in middle school. The recipe was for Rachael Ray’s oven fries. My mom was at work. My dad was busy with his tools in the garage. With no one around, I cranked the oven dial past the 350 mark and set it squarely on 400. I felt a rush of rebellion. The potato wedges quickly crisped to a golden brown before anyone could see the dangerously high temperatures with which I was playing. I had discovered the joy of roasting, and there was no turning back.
These days, roasting is one of my techniques for cooking all manner of things. Carrots are a natural fit for high-heat cooking and have become my favorite vegetable to roast. For this recipe, I first thought about cooking them at 425, but on a whim, let the dial creep up to 475. I figured it would save me some time, and potentially add a bit more color to the carrots. I tossed the half-moon slices in a generous glug of olive oil and threw them into the fiery oven as I prepared the rest of the salad components: a lemon harissa dressing (inspired by this great book), quinoa with golden raisins, and wilted rainbow chard. Within 30 minutes, everything was ready for assembly, and I opened the oven to find 475-degree-kissed perfection: the carrots were caramelized, tender but not too soft, and had a beautiful amber hue. I mixed everything together and topped the salad with fresh mint and a handful of chopped walnuts for a weeks worth of filling lunches. Even when eaten cold, the sweet smokiness from the roasted carrots really shone through.

Whether you’re reading this from chilly Iowa or steamy Miami, I urge you to crank up the heat higher than usual and bask in the pleasures of roasting.

Roasted Carrot Salad with Harissa Lemon Dressing

Roasted carrots:
4 large carrots
3 tbsp olive oil
salt

Preheat oven to 475. Peel and cut carrots into half moons. Toss carrots with olive oil and a couple shakes of salt and spread on a foil lined baking sheet. Roast for 30-40 minutes, tossing halfway through and then every 10 minutes after that until tender and caramelized in some spots.

Quinoa:
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
¼ cup golden raisins

Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan on high heat, covered with a lid. When contents come to a boil, reduce heat to medium high and cook for 10-15 minutes, until water is completely absorbed and quinoa is al dente.

In a large pot over medium heat, saute chard and garlic in olive oil for about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently, until wilted and slightly cooked down, but still retaining some bite. Add lemon zest and remove from heat.

Combine cooked quinoa, roasted carrots, cooked chard, dressing, mint, and walnuts in a large bowl (or save a dish and use the chard pot) and stir until combined. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy warm or cold. Keeps well in the fridge.

On Saturday night, the sugar cured kitchen was abuzz with kneading, baking, tossing, and dressing up the makings of a perfect girls’ night dinner. Kate and her roommate whipped together two incredible and innovative pizzas (recipes forthcoming) and I was put in charge of the salad.

I haven’t shared many salad recipes on this blog, which runs counter to the fact that concocting big salads full of interesting ingredients is one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen. Our special Saturday night dinner invited the opportunity to finally try my hand at a salad that had spoken to me from the moment I saw it touted on Lottie & Doof as “the best thing I made this year.” It hails from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem, an incredible book full of Middle Eastern dishes that Kate has featured before on the blog. It combines baby spinach with dates, red onions, toasted almonds, homemade pita chips, and a simple dressing of lemon juice and olive oil and results in a blissful marriage of flavors.
The pita chips, which are made by pan frying torn pieces of pita bread in butter and olive oil and then dusting the golden crunchy pieces with salt, red pepper, and za’atar, almost didn’t make it into the salad. They were so darn delicious on their own that we kept munching away at them straight from the pan as we [not so] patiently waited for the pizzas to cook. I had never thought to pan fry pita chips before, but I’ll definitely be adopting this technique when the need, or craving, for pita chips next arises. The dates and onions were soaked together in vinegar before being added to the salad, a step that both mellowed out the onions and made the dates even moister.

A little sweet, a little tangy, a little crunchy, and extremely unique—this salad is nothing short of brilliant, and yet another testament to the genius of Yotam Ottolenghi.

Put the vinegar, onion, and dates in a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt and mix well with your hands. Leave to marinate for 20 minutes, then drain away any residual vinegar and discard.

Meanwhile, heat the butter and half of the olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the pita and almonds and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring all of the time, until the pita is crunchy and golden brown. Remove from the heat and mix in the sumac, red pepper flakes, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside to cool.
When you are ready to serve, toss the spinach leaves with the pita mix in a large mixing bowl. Add the dates and red onion, the remaining olive oil, the lemon juice, and another pinch of salt. Taste for seasoning and serve immediately.

Being stuck in the middle of winter has imparted me with a squirrely compulsion to have my pantry hyper-stocked. This is by no means a bad thing, except for the fact that I am about sixteen bags, cans, and boxes of nuts, grains, and beans away from clearing out my cabinet before heading home in a month. I knew this weekend I needed to tackle a few of these items, and the first, and perhaps fondest item, to experiment with was a bag of dried brown lentils. Lentil soup is my usual go-to lentil dish, but I decided to switch it up this week, inspired by three juicy Meyer lemons that had been eyeing me from my produce drawer all week long and a recipe I had recently seen for lentils, sweet potatoes, and radishes in a Meyer lemon dressing.
Radishes are not something I normally gravitate towards—their bitterness just doesn’t sit quite right with me. But roasting them was pretty revolutionary. They went from being having a sharp and crunchy bite to being meltingly soft and even a little bit sweet. Paired with my all-time favorite, the sweet potato, and a mustard, thyme, and Meyer lemon vinaigrette, this salad was bright, yet earthy, and had a beautiful mix of colors to boot. I shared this with friends at a potluck dinner tonight, and I’m already looking forward to having leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

One bag of beans down, 15 more pantry staples to go. Stay tuned for more!

Preheat oven to 450. Toss cubes sweet potatoes, radishes, and diced onions with 3 tbsp olive oil, salt, and thyme. Use remaining tbsp of olive oil to coat the bottom of a cookie sheet. Spread the vegetables out in an even layer. Roast for one hour or until sweet potatoes start to caramelize, stirring every 15 minutes.

Lentils:
2 ½ cups (1 bag) green or brown lentils
5 cups water

Rinse lentils under cold water. Place them in a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer with a lid partially on the pot for about 30 minutes, or until lentils are soft but not mushy. If all the water is not absorbed during the cooking process, drain off liquid in a colander.

Hello out there. Sorry for my radio silence of late. Things have been hectic here since we last talked. There has been an embarrassing incidence peanut-butter-and-pickle-sandwich-for-dinner-kinds-of-nights around here and not enough creations I felt were worthy to share with you. But I just picked the other half of Sugar Cured up from the airport (and she brought me New York bagels, bless her soul) and hearing about all her food adventures in NYC (which you all will undoubtedly hear about soon) made me realize I was long overdue for a post.

As I’ve probably told you before, and as you might have guessed by the peanut butter and pickle ref – don’t knock it til you’ve tried it – most of my food habits are yolked to my (often bizzare) cravings. And the other day I got a crazy craving for stuffing. Now I’m nearly certain that I’ve never even tasted stuffing and I don’t really know what it’s supposed to taste like, so it’s more likely that I was craving the idea of it- salty and sweet and celery and thyme and onions and carbs. And I’m just as certain that the Kate-original-creation that resulted in no way resembles any stuffing that any reasonable person makes. But it satisfied the craving to a T and I can’t wait to make it again. It uses mostly ingredients that I always have on hand but manages to be full of enough unexpected flavors to be uniquely craveable. You might even be tempted to skip the stuffing and put this on the Thanksgiving table in its stead.

If you’re not the type of person that hoards mason jars of strange grains in her pantry (ahem, not that I know anybody like that) you might not be too familiar with bulgur. Think of it like couscous with more substance. For most of my bulgur recipes, I just pour some boiling water over it and let it sit on the countertop until it’s soft, but for this recipe I opted to simmer it in broth and I liked the results.

“Stuffing” Salad with Bulgur

1 c bulgur (substitute couscous or quinoa but seriously you should try bulgur)

1 c water + 1 c broth or 2 c water + 1 square vegetable bullion

1 T olive oil

1 T butter

1/2 c onion, finely chopped

2 large shallots, chopped

2 stalks celery, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 medium sweet potato

2-3 large handfuls of kale, roughly chopped

Several sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 t dried thyme

Balsamic vinegar

1/2 c almonds, roughly chopped or slivered

1/2 c dried cranberries

1/3 crumbled goat cheese

Cook the sweet potato, using whatever method you prefer. My preferred method is by microwave. Stab the potato with a fork, cook on high for 4-5 minutes, flip it over, and cook another 2 minutes or so, continuing in minute intervals until it is soft but not mushy. Allow to cook, then remove the skin and cut into 1/2″ cubes

Meanwhile, put the bulgur and the broth and/or water in a saucepot and bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the liquid gone. Set aside with the lid on to allow the grain to continue to steam.

While the bulgur cooks, prepare the vegetables. Melt butter with olive oil in a large skillet, then add the onions and shallots and cook until soft and translucent. Add the carrots and celery and cook until just soft. Add the thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Then add the kale and cook until it starts to wilt, 2-3 minutes. Deglaze the veggies with several glugs of balsamic vinegar (sorry y’all- I don’t have it in me to measure my vinegar). Cook just a minute longer so all the flavors can combine. Mix together grains, sweet potato, vegetables, cranberries, cheese, and almonds in a large bowl. Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold.

As much as I love reading food blogs and perusing the internet for innovative recipes, to me there is nothing quite as satisfying as leafing through the pages of cookbooks and food magazines. My love for printed food media comes as no surprise. At home we have a bookcase that towers six shelves high and is jam-packed exclusively with cookbooks ranging from my great-grandmother’s worn-out Cuban cooking bible to our most recent acquisition, Best of Food & Wine 2012. Then, there’s the smaller four-shelf magazine cart that houses the best issues of Bon Appetit and Gourmet that have been delivered to our house over the past fifteen years. In short, there is no shortage of good food reads.

I didn’t fully appreciate the incredible volume of food publications I had at my fingertips until I left for college. Without the comfort of glossy photos and chocolate-stained pages to dive into when I needed a break from school books, I felt a void that surfing the internet for recipes just couldn’t fill. I found my therapy at our campus bookstore. It became a little ritual of mine to sit among the magazine shelves on Friday afternoons, rewarding myself for making it to the end of week by indulging in an hour of leafing through the pages of my favorite food magazines. I was well aware that making three-layer cakes and succulent roasts was completely out of my dorm kitchen reach, but soaking up the images and words on the pages was enough to keep me sated.

When I come home, one of the first things I do is peruse through the Bon Appetit issues that I’ve missed, which are always reliably stacked in the back corner of our kitchen counter. This trip I set out exploring the travel issue, which had an enticing section about Greek food. A roasted pepper and nectarine salad immediately caught my eye. I took it as inspiration to create my own twist, using peaches instead of nectarines and adding basil and pistachios. It was a delicious accompaniment to grilled shrimp, and I could also see it becoming a meal on its own if mixed with a grain like orzo or cous cous.

Preheat oven to 400. Toss peppers in olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar, coriander, and cumin. Place on a large rimmed baking sheet and roast peppers for about 30 minutes, stirring halfway through, until peppers are softened and slightly browned on edges. While peppers are roasting, place peach or nectarine slices and cherry tomatoes in a large bowl. When peppers are done roasting, place them in the large bowl and allow them to sit on top of the fruit and tomatoes for 5 minutes so that the heat from the peppers warms them and draws out their juices. Add the basil, pistachios, lemon juice, and additional salt and pepper to taste.